Abstract: Objective To investigate the current status of frailty in elderly patients with lung cancer and analyze the influencing factors. Methods A total of 146 cases of lung cancer patients aged 60 and above in the department of thoracic oncology, a tertiary grade-A cancer hospital in Guangxi were selected by convenient sampling and were surveyed by using general information questionnaire, Chinese version of Groningen Frailty Index and Barthel index scale. The influencing factors were analyzed by multiple linear regression. Results The total score of frailty was 3.01±1.58, including physical frailty 1.27±0.90, cognitive frailty 0.58±0.49, social frailty 0.52±0.50, and mental frailty 0.65±0.49. Multiple linear regression showed that age, stage of lung cancer, course of disease, multiple diseases, and activities of daily living had statistically significant effects on frailty score of elderly lung cancer patients, which explained 50.4% of the total variance (P<0.001). Conclusion Elderly patients with lung cancer have different degrees of frailty in physical, cognitive, social and psychological aspects, and multiple factors can affect the occurrence of frailty. Tumor specialists should attach importance to the assessment of frailty in this population, and timely take effective and feasible intervention measures to improve their quality of life and reduce medical burden.

Key words: elderly, lung cancer, frailty, influencing factor